White colors

Who ever said that snow was only a dull white? Now that the sun has finaly arrived back up here again, and the colors it brings along makes the landscape into the most beautiful painting you will ever see. Pinks, purples, reds and oranges try to compete with the blue and the white. With the sun came the reindeers, and we have now got a reindeer trying to find food in between the snowmobiles on the outside of the house. It might sound exotic with a reindeer feeding just outide youre bedroom window, but when theire antlers grow out again the scraping sound against the wall makes my girlfriend go mad. But until the antlers have grown out, and the snow has disappeared, I will be enjoying the wonderful landscape. Hope you people out there will enjoy my pictures. > > >

Gull-ringing and other fun stuff

Now I am almost ready to start this seasons ringing, and I have to say I am very excited over the prospect of handling huge gulls, and small buntings. This season I have got three main projects going. As soon as I have got the rings which are now sendt from the mainland I will start trying to catch Glaucous Gulls (Polarmåke), and if I am lucky I might be as lucky as to get hold of one or two of the Iceland Gulls (Grønlandsmåke) that have frequented the area. There is also a good chance of catching a Herring Gull (Gråmåke), and Greater Black-backed (Svartbak), Lesser Black-backed (Sildemåke) , Common (Fiskemåke), Black-headed (Hettemåke) and Ivory Gulls (Ismåke) are all possible as well, although they are visiting in smaller numbers. I will be fitting the gulls with both metal- and color-rings so that there might be a possibility to resight the gulls and to see how they move around.



The second project will be to ring Anow Buntings (Snøspurv), this I will do by putting up a feeding-station outside my livingroom window, and I will be using a walk-in-trap. MAybe there will be a bird that has been ringed in UK or Norway amongst them?



The third project will be the ringing of small waders, where we this year will focus on two species, Dunlin (Myrsnipe) and Purple Sandpiper (Fjæreplytt). But of course all other waders or other birds that want to walk into the traps are more than welcome. I have got a ring for all the birds that visit.



Other than this I will again be trying to find as many as possible chicks to be ringed around Longyearbyen. Espescially Dunlin and Red/Grey Phalarope (Polarsvømmesnipe) will be my main target species, and I will try to find nests and chicks of Purple Sandpipers for future research-oportunities.



I am posting some of the pictures that I have posted earlier this year again so that my target species can be shown again. All I need now is the weather to get a bit better.

Red/Grey Phalarope is a bird I will be trying to find even more broods of this year.

Glaucous Gull will be one of my target species while ringing this year.

Ivory Gull is one of the famous birds of Longyearbyen.

Golden Plover is a rare breeding bird on Svalbard, and I hope to find more chicks to ring this year.

Iceland Gull is one of the species that I really hope that I can get my hands on this season.

Winter Wonderland

I once read a Calvin & Hobbes comic-book with the title: "Nothing as Silent as Snow". If they had experienced Svalbard they would have found an even quieter atmosphere. Admittedly Calvin used the silent snow for throwing snowballs, where I only use it for the pleasure of observation.

Now the dark polar-night is starting to resign, and the beautiful blue light that can only be apreciated at high latitudes is being swapped for amazing pinks, purples and oranges. Today the first rays of the sun managed to stretch their way to Hiorthfjellet on the other side of Adventfjorden, and marked the end of the never ending night for this time. With the sun the polarbears have started to come into town, and even though I havent managed to see any of them yet this year, it makes it just feel even better to be out photographing the landscape. I am posting a few pictures that I am pleased with, which are all taken within the last fourteen days. I hope that all you out there that are watching them will like the view of Svalbard in winter-plumage as much as I do.

December 11th

Yet another stunning evening of Aurora (Nordlys). I stood out in the cold and photographed until my camera decided that the battery should freeze, and hence stop my photo-shoot. But I did manage to get off a couple off nice pics though.

Update on November 17th

In the evening of the 17th there was again some Auroral (Nordlys) activity in the sky, and me and my girlfriend rushed out to get a glimpse of it. Unfortunately the moon was quite bright so the pictures didnt become the best ones ever, but the scenery was awesome. White mountains and tundra lit up by moonlight, with green mist on the dark blue skye. And as the last picture shows, it was a pretty cold evening. -18 Celsius demands proper clothes. But I find it quite remarkable that I managed to get a bright moon and aurora in the same picture!

November 17th

This is Longyearbyen in winterplumage. There has been a lot of photos online lately of the Aurora (Nordlys) which has been seen on the skyline lately, but since I havent managed to get myself out there when the Aurora has been there this is the best I can do so far this season.

August 17th

A day of photographing! What a seldom treat! And when I actually managed to get a couple off good shots I am more than happy. The first bird that I encountered amde my heart jump a little to begin with, before I saw what it actually was. At first glimpse, when I could only see the head it looked like a Cackling Goose (Polargås). Given the fact that I have been here long enough to ha ve seen many strange Barnacle Geese (Hvitkinngås), I found a better position to watch from. This resulted in that I could confirm that it was in deed a juvenile Barnacle. The angle of the head when I first saw it was such that the white forehead-patch was hidden, but when it turned its head it was visible. Together with a grey back and white underside its a plain Barnacle.

When I went further out I came across a quite photogenic Arctic Fox. It showed off well for some minutes before it went on its way to find todays ration of food. As the last picture shows, it even knows that it has to look along the road before it crosses.

Other species that I manged to get some good pictures of were a Fulmar (Havhest) and a Glaucous Gull (Polarmåke) that came flying past me at Vestpynten. I got some nice pictures of female Eiders (Ærfugl) with their still downy chicks roosting on the beach on Kullkaia, and a stretching adult Purple Sandpiper (Fjæreplytt) and a roosting adult Purple Sandpiper finnished off the day.

August 11th

Today I was ringing Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) and Dunlins (Myrsnipe) again in the Advent Delta. I am attaching a couple of pictures of a young and an adult to show the different markings on the belly. I am allso attaching some photos of my emergency setup of powersupply to the speakers I am using. The two batteries that I have got were both empty, so the only way to manage to keep ringing was to use the one sat in the car. On the last picture you can see the traps that I am using.

August 10th

Again the Arctic Terns (Rødnebbterne) was my main topic for this birding trip. I wanted to get a few good pics of the chicks that had fledges by now, but again nature doesnt give you the motives you want easily. The pictures I wanted to get were of flying fledglings, but since they were reluctant to take flight I had to settle with some of sitting birds. I am not the one to force them into flying.

As the picture above shows, the terns were not to pleased to have the Arctic Skua around. But I find the skua quite a nice bird, and I had a little photo-session with that one too.